FUNDRAISER WILL HELP AMCS PROVIDE LOW-COST MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES, TRAIN THERAPISTS
Airport Marina Counseling Service’s (AMCS) 17th annual “Spring into Well-Being” Celebration will be held on Thursday, May 6, 2021, at 5 p.m. at the H Hotel Los Angeles in the Gateway area. It will be livestreamed via Zoom as well. The event will celebrate the success of the clinic’s 2021 Champion of Mental Health Cedars-Sinai Marina del Rey Hospital. Cedars-Sinai has been instrumental in helping AMCS become an indispensable part of the county’s mental health care safety net.
“The hospital helped AMCS with grants to create a three-year strategic plan and funded a partnership with Mar Vista Famly Center and Open Paths Counseling Center called the ‘Building Healthy Families Initiative,’” said AMCS CEO Eden Garcia-Balis. “They have also given us a grant for an electronic health records system, which will be huge for us as we work to digitize our records. We are excited to honor Cedars for their incredible contributions to the clinic.”
The live event is expected to attract 100 key local community and business leaders in a socially distanced and COVID-safe environment, while hundreds more watch via Zoom. The goal, Garcia-Balis said, is more than $300,000 to help continue providing much-needed affordable, community-based mental health services and to support the training of the clinic’s more than 60 mental health therapists each year.
Over the past year, AMCS has played an increasing role in providing counseling to help people from all walks of life overcome the stress associated with the pandemic and the isolation that has come along with it.
Retired NBC4 Weathercaster Fritz Coleman will serve as the emcee, and the event will include a variety of auction items, both live and silent, as well as fun games and a celebration of AMCS’s success in providing critically needed mental health services even in the midst of a pandemic.
For more information about the event or to purchase tickets, please visit www.AMCShelps.com.
